Think it couldn't happen here?
‘Contract
worker stole all Israelis’ personal information’
October 24, 2011 by admin
Okay, this is not a great headline to
wake up to. The Jerusalem Post reports:
Information was
used to create searchable database with sensitive information of
every Israeli, living and deceased;
computer technician put the database on the Internet for anyone in
the world to access.
A contract worker
from the Ministry of Labor and Welfare was charged with stealing the
personal information of over 9 million Israelis from the Population
Registry, the Justice Ministry announced Monday after a media ban was
lifted.
The worker
electronically copied identification numbers, full names, addresses,
dates of birth, information on family connections and other
information in order to sell it to a private buyer.
The information
was also given to another individual who used it to design a software
program called “Agron 2006″, which exploited the database to
allow queries of all Israeli citizens, allowing information to be
illegally sold based on various parameters. Those parameters could
include familial relationships of the entire Israeli population, over
several generations.
[...]
A copy of the
software program, devoid of any protection mechanisms, was later
obtained by a computer technician who uploaded it to the Internet.
He even created a website with detailed instructions explaining how
to download and use the Argon program with Israeli citizens’
personal information.
Read more on Jerusalem
Post. This is not the first time we’ve seen an
entire
country’s information breached, but it’s still
staggering and a reminder of the insider threat.
[From the Post article:
Ironically, the computer technician went through great lengths to
hide his own identity. Using the online pseudonym "aRi",
the suspect used various methods and software to hide his IP address
and delete any traces of his activity from computers he used, the
Justice Ministry said. [How to find the hacker?
Match the government's database against the online database –
whoever isn't online is your crook! Bob]
The significance of the personal
information's release to the entire world, the Justice Ministry said,
ranges from personal privacy to economic and physical security.
In “Ye olde days,” the worst that
would happen is a teenager would earn a “reputation” in the
neighborhood or if he really screwed up, become known as the village
idiot. Today, anyone who sees something stupid/amusing/titillating
is expected to post the video so all his buddies (and everyone else
in the world) can have a laugh.
Lessons
not learned: teens, sex in public areas, and reputations ruined
October 23, 2011 by Dissent
There have been many bad laws that have
been proposed in the name of protecting children. And when those
proposed laws collide with adults’ rights’ or wishes, the
conflict can be intense. Now a situation in Maryland reminds us that
sometimes, children may, indeed, need protection – even from the
consequences of their own actions. But what will the fallout be?
The facts of the case are not yet
clear, but it involves a video tape of a 14-year old student having
sex on a Baltimore public school property. WJZ has been all over the
story since the father of the student contacted them to express
outrage that the video had gone viral on the Internet. He alleges
that his daughter was bullied into having sex and had no knowledge
she was being taped. Nor did she ever consent to being taped or
having the tape uploaded, he claims.
Why,
he asks, did YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter allow that tape – a
tape that might legally be considered
child pornography - to remain on their servers for four days
before removing it?
I will give YouTube, Facebook, and
Twitter the benefit of the doubt that they acted quickly once they
became aware of the situation. But is it too easy to upload
privacy-invasive or reputation-destroying videos to the Internet? I
have no doubt that some will use this case to argue “yes.” There
will likely be more calls for regulation or changes to try to prevent
this type of situation, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen
something like this, and sadly, I don’t think it will be the last
time.’
Apart from issues about sex, teens are
simply not getting the important messages about privacy.
In another case in Maryland – one
seemingly involving consensual sex in a high school auditorium at
Milford Mill Academy – three teenage
students have been charged with perverted sex acts and indecent
exposure. No one has been charged in that case with uploading video
of those acts to the Internet, although there have been unconfirmed
rumors that there is a videotape that was uploaded.
So what do we, as a society, do?
For the past few years, we’ve read a
lot about anti-bullying programs in schools. We’ve heard a lot
about teaching youth to respect their own privacy and to use the
Internet safely. Sadly, and although educating is always a good
first step, I doubt any of those programs will sufficiently prevent
this type of thing – youth consciously choosing to upload a video
that invades someone else’s privacy or that damages their
reputation in ways that may impact their future. I’m beginning to
think maybe we also need to incorporate courses on law in middle
school and high school curricula that include defamation, criminal
invasion of privacy, and statutory rape. And I think we need to be
very clear that even if students try to hide their tracks if they
engage in inappropriate or illegal online conduct, they will be
identified and caught – and prosecuted.
I do not think self-regulation by
businesses has failed. It’s the self-regulation by
users that has failed, and we need to be mindful of that
before proposing any new laws. Attempts to make businesses
responsible for protecting users from themselves puts the
responsibility on the wrong parties. But somehow, somehow, we do
need to protect people from invasion of privacy and reputation harm
because some teenager or adult decided it would be funny or
vindictive to upload a video of someone else.
Perspective: Income from virtual
products – no warehousing, shipping, returns for credit...
Facebook
Will Probably Be More Profitable Than Amazon This Year
In the first six month of 2011 Facebook
had $1.6 billion in revenue and abou $800 million in operating
income, says a source I trust a lot. That
revenue number has been reported
before. And the 50% profit margin is in
line with last year’s $2 billion in revenue and $1 billion in
operating income.
With Facebook growing
revenue and profit by more than 50% every six months, it
won’t be surprising if they hit something close to $2 billion in
operating income for the year.
… Of course Amazon
has far more revenue than Facebook, nearly $10 billion per
quarter, and Q4 will be much higher than $10 billion. Last year they
had $34 billion in revenue.
They just have terrible
margins compared to Facebook because they sell (and
deliver) actual stuff. Facebook delivers ad impressions and Facebook
credits to buy stuff on Zynga.
I pull in 20 feeds each morning (200+
articles) so I always recommend RSS readers. This tool might be
useful to share (or backup?) a list of feeds on a particular subject.
ChimpFeedr:
A Web App To Mash Up RSS Feeds
Chimp Feedr is a web service that
mashes your RSS feeds together. The site does not ask you to create
any accounts. All you have to do is keep entering the URLs of the
RSS feeds that you want merged. When you are done you can click on
the “Chomp Chomp!” button, name the new feed, and obtain its URL.
The new feed includes entries from all
the feeds you entered sorted according to time. You can now add this
feed to your RSS reader.
Also read related articles: 14
“OTHER” Ways to Use RSS
Feeds.
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